Category: Uncategorized

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we run businesses forever. After long periods of quarantine and social distancing, companies and consumers are now finding the digital space a viable alternative to interact with one another. It’s now made clear that businesses have to go online to adapt to the new normal.

The digital space opens up many possibilities for businesses. This includes:

1. Increase outreach to potential customers/clients
2. Potential to increase revenue with a large customer base
3. Ability to track and analyse business data to improve profitability and productivity
4. Have better work-life balance with hybrid work structures

 

Are you prepared for digital transformation?

However, making the digital shift can be uncomfortable for businesses that have relied on physical operations to generate sales. Whether that is having staff on-site to manage plant machinery, or having a brick and mortar store to sell products, both employees and consumers have had to take their activities online since the onset of Covid-19.

As operations and sales activities go online, businesses also have to deal with a new set of challenges unique to the digital space. 

Digital Marketing  There are many skill sets required to generate leads and sales online. The digital marketing spectrum consists of content creation, advertising, public relations, lead generation, and many more. In fact, having a social media page alone is not enough these days. Businesses have to build a digital marketing ecosystem that can reach out to audiences at different stages of their decision making process. 

One key component of digital marketing is having timely interactions with your customers. Sending them messages and reminders of your latest updates can help to keep your brand at the top of mind of customers. Business can employ automation tools to help them interact with customers promptly.

 

IT downtime When Gmail suffered a 7 hour global outage on 20 August, users were not able to access their emails, storage, documents and video-conferencing tools. This severely inconvenienced business operations at a time where many users were relying on their digital tools for everyday activities.

For small to medium businesses, it is equally, if not more important that IT downtime is prevented at all costs. Downtime not only results in a loss of revenue, but it can severely impact the company’s brand image and reputation in the long run.

Cybersecurity Having an online business also means that customer information, business operation statistics, employee identity and other important data are stored online. Cybersecurity is of paramount importance, and it’s crucial that businesses keep on top of any potential breaches to prevent their data from getting compromised.

Having the right tools to manage operations and customers remotely is an essential component for every business today.

 

How to manage your digital assets effectively? 

It is more essential now than ever to ensure that our online business assets are well built and well protected.

Issues such as IT downtime, a failure to respond to customers promptly, and cybersecurity issues can cost businesses thousands of dollars. As we enter the new normal where there will be a greater reliance on digital products and services, it is inevitable that every business will have to upgrade their systems to match the current IT advancements.

Curious to learn more about digital transformation for your business?

 

The cost of IT downtime and data breaches adversely affects businesses both large and small. The recent downtime with Gmail, for example, has caused disruptions across the globe and interfered with business operations and working professionals ability to do their daily tasks. This detrimentally affects its users, specifically those struggling with the current COVID pandemic and working from home.

Such a large and prolific company like Google / Gmail are considered an essential service during these times, and the number of users still gravitating towards their services may not be as adversely impacted as the average business. For the rest of the companies that do not command a sizable influence over a large portion of the world’s population, IT downtime could spell disaster, resulting in a huge loss of revenue and customer base.

 

How do we therefore ensure that we keep IT disruptions to the minimum?

IT disruptions will happen – and it is unfortunately a matter of when and how. If Google, with their infinite resources and top tier security could falter from time to time, so could we. It is thus crucial for companies to receive information on potential issues that might arise in real-time to at least mitigate the losses that could happen should there be a hiccup to our IT services.

A “bird’s eye view” into the affected IT environment is thus an important service to incorporate in any aspect of businesses. Whether they are related to customer service, operations, marketing, or finance, there is now a pressing need for companies to maintain continuous network uptime to ensure that they stay profitable and credible especially given the dire situation that the nation has seen itself plunged into.

This can be done with an IT alert notification platform. sendQuick’s IT notifications has become an integral part of IT incident management. It has the ability to work with any network management system and sends out notifications via our preferred devices and social messaging platforms (SMS, WhatsApp and Telegram for instance).

Imagine being informed, in real-time, for any part of the system that performs suboptimally or experiencing unplanned downtime – this is undoubtedly a game-changer for businesses hoping to preserve their image and provide the best services for their customer base.

 

How can sendQuick help?

“IT Alert” is a prominent feature in all sendQuick product models, each customised to suit your organisation’s needs. We have worked with major companies such as Rasa Sentosa, for example, a world-class standard resort that needs to be provided with 24 hr updates on critical issues within their IT infrastructure.  Given the size of their business as well as the reputation they must uphold, there is a pressing need for their IT engineers to be informed anytime and anywhere of potential IT issues in their organisation.

sendQuick therefore removes their reliance on slow and outdated email notifications, integrating seamlessly into their IT infrastructure. We enhanced email alerts, converting them into SMS that are sent out immediately to their key engineers to ensure limited downtime and that issues are handled immediately.

To learn more about how sendQuick can help, contact us.

IT has come a long way from just data being stored on paper in the 70s. System interconnectivity was almost non-existent then. This has slowly evolved  into a more complex IT infrastructure  that requires a high level of management. As such, businesses now require an  efficient machine to person communication in time-sensitive issues – and this shows itself in the need for the implementation of IT Alerts.

While we have seen the value of alert notifications in our day-to-day lives (a “ping” from your mobiles on the latest update from your favourite apps, or a pop up on my laptop when an email arrives into your inbox), how has  this been incorporated in businesses from different industries? Here are some of the ways Alert Notifications has created an impact on companies and the way in which they run their businesses.

 

1. Tracking financial transaction statuses at banks

Monies move in and out of bank accounts in real time. It becomes important therefore to receive confirmation for transactions in real time. This helps both the customer and the bank maintain a bond of trust and transparency, removing the need for follow up and costly time wastages on customer hotlines. Alert notification also helps prevent fraudulent transactions from occurring. Customers now have the option to quickly contact their bank to freeze their assets to prevent any unauthorised transactions from taking place.

 

2. Receiving updates on your online purchases

One of the most life changing services in this in the times of the COVID pandemic would be the option for folks observing quarantine to order their favourite food from apps such as GRAB or groceries from RedMart. Alert notification helps users to be constantly updated on the status of their purchase, ensuring that both the users and customers have improved relationships. Delivery schedules are important, especially when busy individuals need the assurance that their items will come on time, and they will be around to receive it. A simple text that says “delivery is arriving in 15 mins” from RedMart, for instance, allows customers to prepare for the arrival of the delivery man, making the transaction simple and fuss free at all times.

 

3. Real-time updates on status of manufacturing processes

In times of factory automation and the growth of an increasingly complex IT infrastructure, it is almost impossible to make note of all potential issues that might occur without some help from alert notifications. A small crisis can escalate into a big issue, leaving a large impact on revenue and profitability of the business. Time will be wasted to find out the source of error or disruption, and the efficiency of the manufacturing process is destroyed. Alert notifications can therefore  help mitigate these potential disasters, ensuring that the factory operates like clockwork at all times.

Running a business, whether large corporations or smaller scale operations has changed in 2020. We are no longer storing data on paper files, for instance, and slowly excel spreadsheets are being replaced by more intelligent software that automatically crunch out the numbers and flag up potential anomalies. This is the future of alert notifications, and it has helped us make sense of what is increasingly a distracting and (sometimes) frustrating world for the benefit of both businesses and humanity.

Alert notifications can be the bane of your existence, and they come in many forms. Whether they are alerts from your social media friends, email notifications at work or that constant, semi-annoying “ding” that comes from your messaging apps – these notifications can be overwhelming and most have resorted to muting notifications altogether to avoid feeling harassed.

Thankfully, technology has advanced, and alert notifications can be more meaningful to us, helping us save lives and prevent disasters from happening.

Here’s how they have evolved by 2020:

 

1. Alert notifications now informs users of old news as well as fake news

Truth telling has become so important on social media platforms. With the onslaught of “fake news” circulating to create discord amongst users across the globe, Facebook now gives a notification if the news users are intending to share are more than three months old. This helps prevent users from taking an old incident and representing it out of context by spreading misinformation.

In addition, Facebook is moving to send notifications on important current affairs such as COVID-19 news. Users will be directed to “authoritative health information” for updates on the disease instead of random gossip from their friendly Whatsapp chat groups. Users who have interacted with “fake news” will be redirected to the World Health organisations “mythbusters” page and will be actively discouraged from speaking the misinformation to other users.

 

2. Amber Alert notifications in Ontario used to locate missing children


The police in Ontario have managed to locate a missing child within 40  minutes on June 29, 2020. A notification on child abduction has been sent as well as a plea for the public to keep a lookout for the child. As such, this helps the police solve the case efficiently and effectively, allowing the child to be found safe and a suspect arrested.

Similar usage of Amber Alert notifications has also been implemented in events such as natural disasters and other matters of national importance. While users are given the option to toggle these notifications on and off, this life saving alerts has helped get people to safety in the event of an imminent disaster that occurs.

 

3. Alert Notifications used to contain the spread of COVID within South Korea

South Korea has managed to contain the outbreak of the coronavirus by sending out alert notifications to its citizens of potential hotspots. Areas and locations that are visited by infected citizens are mass broadcasted, while travellers coming into the country have to update their health status on an app upon arrival at the airport. This keeps the public constantly updated and they are able to make informed decisions on the routes to take during their day-to-day activities.

While we’re swarmed by notifications on our mobile phones as well as at work, there have been developments in these notifications that could save lives and keep us informed with critical news updates. As such, these alerts are not just a tool to update us on superficial information, but have the capacity to save lives now.

With a majority of the citizens in Singapore locked down within the safety of their own homes, effective and timely transmission of official information is crucial to ensure that life runs smoothly whether in terms of national security or business operations. Remote working, for example, has since been an uncomfortable necessity for many businesses, and some IT support may find that they are ill-prepared to handle the vast influx of requests both for staff and customers given the mandate given by the government to stay at home.

Why focus on timely alert notifications?

Alert notification has worked wonders in the preservation of public safety. In South Korea, for instance, emergency texts from the government to keep its citizens updated on critical information. By utilising mass mobile messages and installation of tech within the mobile network, the country is able to connect with millions of people per day.

In an interview with CNN Business, Dr. Fred Muench, the president of the US-based Center on Addiction, confirms that these SMSes in the public health sector are the most effective methods in terms of reach and speed of communication. It also offers the authorities a chance to collate data and use the information garnered to get on top of critical issues founded.

Timely alert notifications, in the case of South Korea, are crucial for the nation’s success in preserving the safety of an entire country in ways where other developed countries and economies have failed rather severely.

How can we translate this success story into our business operations?

Speed is of essence when sending out time-sensitive information. Unfortunately, the average business depends mostly on emails or phone calls in times of crisis. When this happens, information may get distorted and not communicated properly. Imagine a business that is struggling with working remotely suddenly having issues with their IT servers. Then imagine the frantic emails and phone calls that staff and customers may send to an IT manager – not only would this result in a complete obstruction of work, but the impact could mean a financial disaster for the company.

Your IT Manager needs to know exactly what happened, how it happened, who is in charge of fixing it and then communicating clear instructions to staff. This cannot be done easily through simple emails. As such, there is where Alert Notification Systems come in handy.

Is it worth subscribing to these notification systems?

Businesses who depend on quick and accurate dissemination of information find value in embracing such a system. Short, concise messages are far more valuable than a string of emails that might not get the attention it deserves because it is buried under thousands of spam messages.

sendQuick’s alert notification systems, for example, helps IT personnels respond better in the event an issue pops up within the company. Sending instant alerts via SMS to the respective parties within the organisation anywhere and anytime helps reduce downtime and help businesses protect themselves in times of severe uncertainties.

Take action to protect your business now, contact us.

Whether we like it or not, the world as we know it has probably changed because of the current pandemic. With most businesses now forced to operate remotely, there is a scramble to get IT security in order as staff members begin to earnestly work from home.

 

Scaling IT security during work-from-home arrangements

Security teams for both small businesses as well as larger organisations are struggling to safeguard their confidential data in a manner that will not disrupt day-to-day activities. Staff members are already struggling with the sudden disruption in their daily work life. There is, therefore, a necessity to balance implementing new security protocols alongside the new work arrangements. 

The issue IT staff face therefore depends on many variables – including the additional struggle of having to deal with home computers with different setups and working conditions.

 

Cybersecurity – the human problem

The fact remains that the biggest threat to company security is the one working in front of their personal computers right now. According to an article by the World Economic Forum, cybercriminals are exploiting COVID-19 to laugh and all out cyber assault on businesses. Passwords therefore remain one of the most vulnerable targets and, the article proposed, it must be gotten rid of to improve security, lower costs and increase security.

That said, businesses are still highly dependent on passwords to protect their online accounts. A drastic shift towards removing passwords altogether is unlikely in such short notice. It’s crucial therefore for companies to enable 2FA in order to add an extra layer of security to prevent unauthorised persons from getting their hands on your personal data.

 

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) – now easy to use and affordable

The good news is, 2FA is no longer difficult to use or expensive to install. With remote working being enforced, this is the perfect way to incorporate an additional layer of protection to protect your data.

With sendQuick ConeX, our low-cost / seamless 2FA implementation, businesses no longer have to access the password via any other devices besides their mobile devices. This means there are no physical tokens to buy for your staff, therefore reducing operational costs.

With new working conditions comes a need to pre-empt new issues that comes with it. IT security becomes top priority for companies looking to protect their data from malicious attacks. As such, 2FA offers a cheap and flexible option for businesses, both big and small, and it remains one of the most popular options for companies to-date.

Working from home, especially during the growing global panic, has its perks. For starters, it feels great to wake up and not worry about getting infected during the long, crazy commute to the office. While countries are in lock-down and members of the workforce are forced to retreat into their homes to work remotely, it is easy to be distracted and become less productive while working.

Here are 4 ways you can remain productive when working from home:

1. Reduce distractions at your working space

Make sure that you’re carved out a quiet and professional space far away from kids and pets. Unnecessary interruptions break your concentration resulting in poor productivity. While you save on travel time as well as cut down on the unnecessary chit chat at the water cooler, make sure that nothing else at home engages you in idle chatter as well.

 

2. Track your work progress with free productivity apps

Youtube and other online entertainment websites are also a distraction. Make sure that you’re not tempted by making a clear to-do list on online productivity trackers such as Asana and Trello. While folks who work from home enjoy the flexibility of working however they like, ensure that you fulfil the list that you have set out for yourself for the day.

 

3. Take breaks in-between working hours to keep your mind focused and fresh

Staying at home all the time can be daunting – especially for people who thrive on human interactions each day. As such, do ensure you get some light exercises each day. Do a short march around the house, some stretches, or sit and balance on a gym ball to work those core muscles. A little workout is necessary to get your blood flowing and your mind alert.

 

4. Ensure your IT security is enhanced

Simply put, passwords can be hacked. If you’re handling private and confidential information for your company, hackers may be able to get access and steal your data if your password isn’t strong enough.

According to a recent report by Reuters, the recent move to work-from-home has put a strain in IT resources, and it is harder to keep up especially when cybercriminals are consistently making attempts to phish for passwords.

As such, implementing a 2-Factor Authentication system is a great solution in providing an extra layer of security. Instead of being issued with tokens, sendQuick’s Conexa sends a one-time password (OTP) to users via mobile devices, thus verifying users before giving them access to the data.

 

Given the climate of panic and uncertainty, having a proper system in place at home is important in ensuring both your productivity and data security. While it can be challenging to maintain a professional working environment at home, having poor IT security could actually cause massive financial damage to the business. It is therefore important for companies to stay ahead of hackers by implementing the necessary protection to prevent a financial disaster caused by data theft.

Businesses invest thousands of dollars annually to monitor the health of their systems, servers and networks. This means that the average IT manager is faced with the mammoth task of monitoring multiple platforms and devices at the same time.

Having email alerts can be overwhelming, and time is wasted wading through hundreds if not thousands of email messages each day to get to the root cause of any issue. Not only does this mean that precious time is wasted, but one also runs the risk of missing out on critical notifications that require immediate attention.

While companies have mostly relied on email alerts as the primary form of crisis notification, this format is proven to be slow and inefficient.

Here are 3 reasons why email alerts are detrimental to your business: 

1. Slow response time

Between spams and work-related emails that gets bombarded into your inbox, it’s hard to track critical alerts that require immediate attention. According to a research by Gartner, an hour of system downtime can easily cost you $140,000 to $540,000. As such, it is important to receive alerts that reach the intended party immediately via notifications through SMS or other social messaging platforms, for example.

2. Difficulty in assigning tasks to persons in charge

So, you and your team members have received a critical alert via your emails. Who is to be responsible for handling this outstanding issue? Time-critical incidents require prompt responses from the IT team. The last thing one needs is to have time wasted by team members who are unsure about who is in charge of the situation and if someone else is already on top of it.

3. Lack of status visibility for the team

Once someone is finally working on the incident, the team needs to be updated on the status of the crisis. This information will be important not only to the IT teams, but also managers, directors and even stakeholders within the company. Email notification, therefore, does not provide these key members of the organisation the information they need to make quick, and decisive actions that could make or break the company.

Instead of slow and old-fashioned email notifications, businesses need real-time notifications to promote faster response times. sendQuick’s Notification Management Platform not only provides alerts through your favourite social messengers but can also be directed to specific teams and team members.

This means that the right people are notified of any system downtimes at all times, therefore protecting your business from catastrophic financial losses and promote customer satisfaction.

IT Notification Management – How to get Notified on things that really matter

Timely updates are crucial to all businesses – especially in an increasingly complexed IT infrastructure. In a study by Gartner, IT downtimes cost companies a whopping $336,000 an hour. It becomes important therefore to that a stand-alone system should be installed to help reduce the risk of system downtimes and network bottlenecks.

This is where an IT notification management platform comes in handy.

How does this work?

IT notification management platforms are appliance-based or cloud-based systems that connects with SIEM, DCIM, ITSM and NMS systems. It sends out an alert each time a device or application connected to the system performs sub-optimally or experiences an unplanned downtime.

While systems have its own built-in notification module, a stand-alone IT notification management platform is superior in terms of its reachability. This means that you will be able to reach IT support personnel not only via email, but on mobile devices via SMS, social media apps and collaboration tools as well.

How does this help you?

Whether you have the right person contacted at the right time is something that could make or break your business. With the ability to reach your IT support personnel on mobile devices via SMS, social media apps and collaboration tools, you get faster responses to critical events and allows seamless communications whether with your staff or customers.

In short, your team finds out about issues before your users. And this is important. While losing network access can cause immediate pain in the form of lost productivity and opportunities, system downtime can cause more harmful long-term damage to a company – your brand and reputation.

Curious to learn more?

Contact us to craft your notification strategy.

Maintaining the IT systems in a small company is a relatively simple process. If a desktop computer, for example, begins to act up, most of the time you can reboot it to resolve the issue.

 

In a large enterprise, in a similar situation, you need to call the IT helpdesk to assess the situation before they can advise you on the probable root cause, effect on other systems connected to yours, and the course of action that would need to be undertaken. 

 

There is an elaborate system comprising various processes which ensures that the IT systems, applications, databases, servers and all other IP-addressable infrastructure are running smoothly and performing optimally through the entire IT lifecycle. 

 

The system used for this purpose is called ITSM or IT Service Management. At its core, it comprises people, processes and technologies. Simply put, people who are tasked to manage it, use established processes and workflows with the technologies at their disposal in any IT service matter to ensure that the IT infrastructure, as a whole, delivers maximum uptime and performance. 

The Function of an ITSM

An ITSM system generally comprises Workflow Automation, Problem Management, Change Management, Asset Management, Patch Management, Knowledge Management, and Ticket & Incident Management.

 

While ITSM consists of a few different segments, we are concerned with the Ticket & Incident Management, Workflow Automation, Problem Management and Asset Management functions. 

 

The service requests can range from a scanner being inoperable to a security server experiencing unplanned shutdown. The work of an ITSM begins when a user calls or messages the IT service or helpdesk who then issue a support ticket to this user in acknowledgement of receiving the service request. 

 

The objective of a helpdesk is to resolve the immediate issue being faced by users of the IT system and also determine if a greater systemic issue exists which is the root cause of the problem. 

 

As part of the workflow to resolve a problem with any part of the system and resolving it involves stakeholders such as the helpdesk team members, IT department, procurement, finance and various cross-functional decision makers within the organization.

 

These stakeholders may need to be notified when a case is opened and progresses through the entire resolution cycle. The purpose of notifying them is to solicit their functional input or ensure they are aware of the issue. The functional IT manager could be notified to help resolve an IT-related issue and a CIO may be notified (if the problem is potentially systemic) to help translate the long-term business implications which may arise as a result. 

 

The traditional mode of notifying the relevant stakeholders was by using email. If the email was not sent, or ended up in the spam folder, or delayed due to policy filters or soft bounces, etc, then the recipient will either not get the email message or receive it late. 

 

In the business world, delays due to IT system being unresponsive can cost an organization money as they may be unable to serve their customers in time, result in lost man hours as the staff need computer systems to do their jobs or, worse, suffer a loss of reputation. 

 

To overcome these challenges, and introduce communication workflows with ITSM systems, a notification management platforms like sendQuick can be seamlessly integrated with it.

 

To date, with over 2,500 installations in more than 50 countries, sendQuick is an ideal choice for notification management.

 

What is IT notification management?

An organization’s IT systems, applications, or databases are typically connected to a network monitoring system (NMS). Anytime, any part of these systems experiences latency or unplanned shutdown or breach user-specified thresholds, the NMS sends an email notification to the IT manager so that he/she can make sure that it begins to perform optimally, again, soon. 

 

The email does not always reach the IT manager. If it reaches him/her, then it may not reach in time. Since email communication is not a sure-fire way to get a message across quickly, a notification management platform (NMP) is the key to eliminate the uncertainty.

 

A NMP like sendQuick can be integrated with any existing NMS as long as it supports sending system notifications as syslog filters, SNMP traps and email. The NMP then takes these incoming messages, converts them into SMS (text) messages, automated voice calls, email, social messenger app (Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, Viber, Telegram) and team collaboration tool (Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, and Slack) messages to the authorized personnel as such IT manager, IT directors, and CIO.

 

What are the necessary features of an NMP?

It is important for an NMP to have features that will help the IT Service Management system to scale easily and add to its robustness. 

1. User Management

The administrators of the NMP need to be able to add users and set preferences on which user prefers to receive incoming notification on the platform of their choice. For eg., User A prefers to receive notifications on Facebook Messenger and User B prefers SMS (text).

 

2. Shift / Roster Management 

An IT incident can occur at any time of the day. An efficient NMP can be programmed to alert only the personnel who were on duty at the time when the incident occurred. 

 

3. Escalation Management

The user-specified contacts need to acknowledge incoming alerts as they begin to address the IT incident. If the primary contact user does not acknowledge the incoming alert, then it is escalated to a secondary contact specified by the NMP administrator. A good NMP needs this feature to ensure message acknowledgement and, therefore, a swift incident remediation.

 

4. Message Filtering 

One key concern of IT managers is that they get inundated with incoming messages and alerts. To address this, a good NMP needs to be able to filter incoming messages from the NMS, filter them for user-specified keywords, and forward the relevant notifications to IT managers to help them avoid alert fatigue. 

 

5. Omnichannel Messaging

It is not enough to rely on a single communication channel to receive alerts. Therefore, a good NMP should allow the users to receive alerts with multiple channels including SMS, email, automated voice calls, social messenger apps (Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, Telegram, Viber) and team collaboration tools (Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, Slack). 

 

As a notification management platform, sendQuick has all these features built-in and new ones are continuously being reviewed to determine if they can be added to deliver value to end-users. 

 

It also helps the IT team to dramatically reduce the mean time to know (MTTK) when an IT incident occurs as it delivers the alerts to concerned personnel in real-time.

 

sendQuick is an ideal solution for notification management that can help an organization to enhance IT incident response times, thereby enabling organizations to better serve their clients and stakeholders. 

 

Click the Request for Information button, below, and get in touch with us should you need further clarification and we will be happy to assist you.